Research and Scientific Advancement

Portrait of Wes Barker

Digital Health Company Experiences Using EHR APIs

Wes Barker | February 15, 2024

New research from a survey of digital health companies shows that most companies (73%) use standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs) when integrating with electronic health records (EHRs) (Figure 1). In 2020, ONC finalized its Cures Act Final Rule, which codified the use of the Health Level 7® (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR®) standard for “certified APIs” that can enable secure, programmatic access to a patient’s electronic health information (EHI).

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Portrait of Alison Kemp

FHIR Factories Help Researchers use EHR Data

Alison Kemp | December 4, 2023

Researchers, developers, and clinicians have new tools to help them access high-quality electronic health record (EHR) data more effectively. A 2020 ONC Leading Edge Acceleration Project (LEAP) in Health IT awardee, MedStar Health Research Institute, in collaboration with the Georgetown University Medical Center and HealthLab, developed two new data tools as part of MedStar’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR) Factories: An Evolving Digital Architecture to Scale Health Research project.

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Portrait of Stephanie Garcia

Advancing Genomic Data-Sharing for Research and Patient Care: Sync for Genes Project Delivers Final Report and Toolkit

Stephanie Garcia | August 21, 2023

Genomic variations can affect a patient’s risk for cancer, response to medications, and numerous other vital health outcomes. In fact, nine of the ten leading causes of death in the U.S. are influenced by genomic factors. The need for systems that help clinicians integrate genomics into care decisions has grown in importance.  
Recognizing this need, in 2017 ONC launched Sync for Genes, a project that sought to advance standards and tools to effectively integrate genomic information into clinical workflows.

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Portrait of Adam Wong

An Innovative Program to Expand the Use of HIE Data for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research

Adam Wong | July 26, 2022

ONC is excited to announce “Using Machine Learning Techniques to Enable Health Information Exchange to Support COVID-19-Focused PCOR,” a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Trust Fund project implementing new technologies and standards to unlock the potential for health information exchanges (HIEs) to support research.

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